


may i have this escape, my lady?

by Star_on_a_Staff



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bounty Hunters, Alternate Universe - Pirate, F/M, First Meetings, Flashbangs, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I did not take this seriously and you shouldn't either, Mercedes "I'm a healer but" von Martritz, Might become a multichapter!, Pre-Relationship, Sylcedes Week (Fire Emblem), light Violence, no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26611024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_on_a_Staff/pseuds/Star_on_a_Staff
Summary: She’s prettier than the caricature gave her credit for, Sylvain thought to himself, grinning. Much prettier.Ah, wait. This was not the time to be ogling a lady, pretty as she may be.“Miss Mercedes von Martritz?” He extended his open palms. “I’m Sylvain Gautier. I was hired to spirit your lovely self out of here.”Or; Sylvain and the crew of The Azure Moon infiltrate an enemy ship to rescue a person-of-interest. Light Sylvain/Mercedes. Pre-relationship. Bounty Hunter/Pirate AU. Written for Sylcedes Week!
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Mercedes von Martritz
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39
Collections: Sylcedes Week 2020





	may i have this escape, my lady?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nenalata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nenalata/gifts).



> *shows up one week late* HAPPY BIRTHDAY NENA!! AND HAPPY SYLCEDES WEEK!!
> 
> This is for the fifth prompt for Sylcedes Week: AU! This was originally going to be a multi-chaptered work, but I thought to post this first before I get in over my head with yet another unfinished WIP (coughs and kicks my other AUs aside). Also, this was a chance for me to flex my nonexistent action/adventure muscles and practice some non-fluffy dialogue for once!
> 
> I hope you like it, dear Nena! Happy late birthday, you fabulous funky bean <3 <3 <3
> 
> If y'all want more, I will be happy to post a follow-up chapter of closure later. Until then, please enjoy!

“This is why we don’t let you pick the goddamn wanted notices, Gautier,” Felix muttered as the three-masted ship before them finally came into view. 

Through the early morning fog, they could see that _The Crimson Flower_ ’s sails were dyed a foreboding ink-black; some dark red scrolling spilled like blood over its canvas like allure and warning at once. Ingrid was able to count six cannon-holes from her perch in the crow’s nest, and Ashe pointed out how the curiously carved stern could only be of Imperial make. 

“To be fair, it was a six-figure reward from the local _baron_ ,” Sylvain said defensively as Dimitri began passing out their arms with a grim expression. “Any of you would’ve taken the offer had you been in my boots.”

“Of course,” Felix scoffed as he slipped half a dozen knives into his belt and boots. “That was the only figure you were admiring. How could I have doubted you.”

“Hush, Fe.” Ingrid scolded softly as she slid from the mast to land noiselessly onto the deck. “We’re getting close.”

Dedue was a steady-handed helmsman, but even he dared not bring _The_ _Azure Moon_ any closer to their target than the current would allow them. The distance between the two ships was too close to be crossed by rowboat, so Ashe began distributing the grappling ropes they had the presence of mind to purchase the last time they had docked for supplies. 

“Best of luck, Sylvain,” The sweet-faced gunslinger said earnestly to Sylvain, who returned the sentiment with a salacious wink and a thumbs-up. 

“Wait!” Annette scurried up to Sylvain, clutching small metallic balls in her arms. “Take these.”

“This is a stealth mission, Annette,” Ingrid scolded even as she gingerly plucked one of the balls from Annette’s arms.

“Oh, I know,” Annette whispered back brightly even as she offered Sylvain another. “But in case something happens and you’re in a pinch, you’ll thank me later.”

“I’ll take one.” Felix said, who believed that Annette could do no wrong. Sylvain rolled his eyes fondly and patted Annette’s braids. “Thanks, Ann.”

Suitably armed, they moved into position. Ingrid had taken up position by the bow of the ship, while further down the deck, Felix was already whirling his hook above his head and aiming for the railing near the ship’s wheel. Ambitious bastard, but Sylvain decided to trot further down the deck and aim for the railing by the main body of the deck. At least they would be nearer the brig’s door and extract its prisoner before Felix made mincemeat out of the helmsman; its very _attractive_ prisoner, if the caricature was to be believed. 

Their ship floated noiselessly forward. 

“Now!” Ingrid’s hiss broke Sylvain out of his pleasant thoughts and together she and the two men swung their ropes and threw them across the shimmering length of seawater. The hooks found purchase in the opposite railings and bit into the wood securely after a few experimental tugs, and both men swung over without much noise or issue. 

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a sudden cry of alarm raised the moment their boots landed securely onto the deck. Sylvain glanced around and saw only a snoring sailor perched by the mast, his emerald hair obscuring his face from view.

“Huh,” Sylvain thought to himself, but thanked his stars and began trotting downwards towards the hold. From the sudden but soft “oof!” that floated across the languid air, it was evident that Felix had successfully taken out the helmsman. Ingrid had already begun scuttling up the mast to take out the lookout in the crow’s nest. So far, so good.

The hatch leading down to the brig took a bit of pawing and fussing around to find, but once he found where the lock and latch were located, Sylvain managed to use his fingers to open the hatch with no real issue (past non-related experience helped).

There was a rudimentary ladder made of rope that swung into a cavernous, yawning hole that was far too dark for Sylvain’s liking, but he manfully put a single boot down onto the first rung and nearly shrieked when it promptly snapped beneath his weight, sending him careening into the hold below. 

He collided into something soft. Something soft and warm and…nice-smelling. 

“Oh, dear me!” There’s a bustle of skirts, a flustered slap that actually stung something fierce, and Sylvain found himself being hastily kicked aside and under the open grate, where the thin morning light seeped through the floorboards. 

The woman who had slapped him darted backwards into the hold, her luminous eyes wide. She had this beautiful, tumbling hair that curled softly around her generous--wow, those were something--chest, and her bedraggled skirts that were more austere rather than excessive had pooled around her lightly manacled feet. Feet that were bare and rather beautiful. 

_She’s prettier than the caricature gave her credit for_ , Sylvain thought to himself, grinning. _Much prettier._

Ah wait. This was not the time to be ogling a lady, pretty as she may be. 

“Miss Mercedes von Martritz?” He extended his open palms. “I’m Sylvain Gautier. I was hired to spirit your lovely self out of here.”

“Oh!” The woman warily unfolded herself from her defensive crouch. Her manacles jingled with surprise. “You must be a bounty hunter! Did my father hire you to rescue me?”

“Of course.” Sylvain bowed as low as his sore tailbone could allow. “Now, Miss von Martritz, would you allow me to spring you out of those chains?”

“I would like that very much!” The woman smiled, and Goddess, her caricature _really_ didn’t do her justice. “And please, call me Mercedes. ‘Miss von Martritz’ just sounds so stuffy, wouldn't you agree?”

“Mercedes—”

Sylvain had barely enough time to savor each delicious syllable of her name before there was a thunderous BANG above deck--the unmistakable report of a pistol discharge.

All hell _immediately_ broke loose. 

“Boarders on deck! Boarders on deck!” The shrill cry of warning rang through the air before being violently cut off. Judging by that familiar gurgle, Sylvain gathered that Felix must’ve found a new home for one of his excessive knives. Time was running out.

“Seems like our timetable just got moved up.” Sylvain muttered as the manacle on Mercedes’ right leg popped open. “Sorry for rushing things when we’ve just met. This isn’t our style.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright.” Mercedes flexed her foot daintily (dear holy Goddess from above), her face maintaining that sweet serenity that had never left her person even when he’d landed ass-first into the hold. 

The final manacle clicked open just in time for a familiar BOOM to sound across the ocean. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Sylvain recognized that sonorous reverb as Ashe’s favored blunderbuss. _The Crimson Flower_ ’s crew must’ve sighted and begun firing upon _The Azure Moon_. 

“Okay, Mercedes, there’s going to be some nasty business above deck. Stay close behind me, ‘kay?” Sylvain helped her to her feet with a wink. “Wouldn’t want a pretty thing like yourself to get hurt.”

“I’ll be quick.” Mercedes promised sweetly. 

Since Sylvain had lost all hope or trust in the rope ladder, Mercedes had to clamber on top of his shoulders to heave herself out of the hold with the help of a grim-faced Ingrid, who had run out of ammunition in her musket and so had resulted to spitting attackers with the attached bayonet with rather fluid grace.

“My lady,” she bowed most gallantly to Mercedes, who curtseyed politely and ducked a bullet whizzing over her head in the same graceful motion. “Please, excuse the mess.”

“Oh, not at all.”

Sylvain cast Ingrid his most dashingly wounded look as she pointedly left him to flounder out of the hold on his own. “She prefers ‘Mercedes’.”

“Already on a first name basis, aren’t you?” Ingrid remarked dryly, but they were too much in a pinch to be exchanging verbal barbs, as evidenced by _The Azure Moon_ ’s resident red-haired powder monkey firing off yet another cannon blast towards the ship. “Come on!”

Up by the helm, Felix was plowing through a whole mess of sailors who did not possess the decency to move out of his escape. He gave Mercedes the barest of nods before turning to Sylvain. “The captain’s awake. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Boarders!” The strong, vibrant voice of Captain Edelgard von Hresvelg of _The Crimson Flower_ rang across the groaning deck of the ship. “Lay a single finger on our prisoner and it’ll be the last thing you’ll do!”

Across the ocean, the slender and sleek form of _The Azure Moon_ floated alongside the bulkier _The Crimson Flower_. From the torchlight, Sylvain could see Dimitri and Ashe on the decks, each aiming their arms at the captain. Below decks, he caught a glimpse of red hair through the port holes. 

“Hold on to me,” Sylvain instructed Mercedes, who obligingly wrapped her arms around his waist. Felix had begun swinging his hook with a grim expression on his face. 

The captain, flanked by her forbidding crew, stepped forward into the torchlight. Even when clad in a thin dressing gown, Captain Edelgard cut a terrifying figure with her enormous cutlass swinging from her gloved hands like it was made of string. 

“Now,” she said coldly, pointing its tip at their group. “Unhand Miss von Martritz at once.”

“I’m afraid I can’t comply with that order, ma’am.” Sylvain told her charmingly as Ingrid began unwinding her own rope from her belt. “You see, we were entrusted with Mercedes’ safe and comfortable passage, and judging by the manacles I had to pry off of her lovely legs, I can see that you weren’t exactly being…obliging.”

“It’s for her own good,” the captain said sternly, her unbound hair tumbling over her face. “I wouldn’t expect a bounty hunter like you to understand.”

“Sylvain,” Ingrid warned quietly. Edelgard’s crew had begun unsheathing their blades and cocking their pistols. 

“I beg to differ, ma’am.” Sylvain tightened his arm around Mercedes’ waist and she leaned into it with such cautious grace that for a moment his heart skipped a beat. _One woman at a time, Gautier._ “I, for one, understand that it isn’t right to put your guest in manacles, however much good you think it would do her.”

As he spoke, Sylvain slipped his free hand into his pockets, hidden by the swoop of Mercedes’ skirts. 

“Hands where we can see ‘em!” A teal-haired sailor, who was hoisting the biggest axehead Sylvain’s ever seen, shouted at him. 

Sylvain extracted the metal ball from his pockets with a suitable flourish before smiling wide and flicking the curious little switch with his thumb. “Sorry.”

He let it roll, hissing, from his fingers onto the deck. It rolled up against the base of the mast with an innocent little _tink_! 

“SCATTER!” Edelgard screamed, and there was a general collapse into utter confusion and panic as her crew scrambled to obey her orders, diving for cover as Annette’s curious little bombs began to whistle like a kettle left unattended for too long. Felix and Ingrid were already making a beeline for _The Crimson Flower_ ’s railing, their hooks whirling above their heads. 

“Cover your ears and open your mouth,” Sylvian instructed Mercedes sharply as he ran like hell to the port side of the ship. Mercedes obeyed with a wide-eyed look, lightly springing into his arms just in time for the whistling to shriek to a deafening pitch. The ball then proceeded to detonate with a deafening bang.

The explosion left Sylvain’s ears ringing, but Annette had taught them to avert their eyes first. Their clever little powder monkey had gone through an egregious amount of trial and error to perfect her flashbangs, but, as the crew of _The Crimson Flower_ stumbled around coughing and moaning through the smoke, Sylvain would happily excuse the many times she had put a hole in their hold now that they’ve saved his hide.

As the crew was incapacitated, he quickly transferred his length of rope to his now free hand and heaved it with a shout towards the side of _The Azure Moon,_ where it found purchase on the sculpted railing. Mercedes clung to his side with a startled shriek as he leapt onto the side of _The Crimson Flower_. 

A vise-like hand gripped his wrist. “Oh no you _don’t_.”

Sylvain yelped as Captain Edelgard clutched his arm with one insanely strong hand, her cold and furious violet eyes pinning him down through her mask of soot and blood. Her other hand clutched her forbidding cutlass, tall and sharp and thirsting for his neck. This woman was _terrifying_. 

Sylvain gulped as Edelgard brandished her blade at his throat. “ _Unhand her_.” 

“Thank you kindly,” Mercedes suddenly piped up sweetly, “but I’d rather he didn’t.”

A familiar click snapped next to Sylvain’s ear as he suddenly realized with another jolt to his stomach that sweet, serene Miss Mercedes von Martitz had somehow extracted his revolver from his belt and had leveled its muzzle straight to Captain Edelgard’s forehead. 

“Excuse me for being so rude.” Mercedes’s voice was soft, almost soothing as Sylvain felt the captain’s grip on his arm weaken. “But you weren’t exactly very hospitable to me, Edelgard.”

“It was for your own good,” the captain said just as softly as she finally let Sylvain’s bloodless wrist go. The fires on the deck cast shadows on her pale face as her unwavering eyes never left Mercedes’s. “You know what he would do to you if you return.”

“That should be my decision to make, not yours.” Mercedes said firmly. Her other arm snuck back around Sylvain’s waist. “Now please, excuse us.”

Mercedes hooked her leg around Sylvain’s and lowered the revolver. She looked up into his dumbfounded face with disarming affability. “Shall we, sir?”

“O-of course.” Sylvain hastily shook himself out of his daze. He tugged on the rope and held on a little tighter to Mercedes as he jumped from the railing, two more subsequent explosions detonating on the deck of _The Crimson Flower_. Felix and Ingrid must’ve thrown their bombs at the last second. 

The breathless arc of swinging over the seething midnight ocean never ceased to take the air from Sylvain’s lungs. Mercedes clung to his side and he strongly hoped that she wouldn't drop his pistol in the water below. 

He angled his boots so that they landed flat on the side of _The Azure Moon_ without breaking his ankles, a trick he’d perfected no thanks to Ingrid’s constant drilling. The rope he clutched groaned, and Sylvain spotted Dimitri above them hastily and single handedly pulling them onboard with his outlandish strength. 

Sylvain sighed with relief as Mercedes burrowed deeper into his side to stave off the cold of the ocean spray. Behind them, _The Crimson Flower_ was up in flames, but their prime target was warm and sound by his side. The most difficult part of their mission was over.

“Oh!” Mercedes shielded her eyes and looked off to the east, her arm clutching Sylvain’s side tightly as Dimitri continued to pull them upwards. “The sun is rising!”

Sylvain followed her gaze. Indeed, the very rim of the sun had just begun lighting the edges of the still-born clouds, gracing everything with a soft pink glow. Flickers of gold and luminescence flashed across the water’s surface like skipping fish, made all the more fiery by the light from the burning deck of _The Crimson Flower_. The formidable black ocean was glimmering, aglow with color. 

“Has it been a while since you saw the sunrise, Mercedes?” Sylvain asked curiously. 

“A while.” Mercedes confirmed as she gazed at the sweeping expanse of sunlit water. “While I was in the hold, I learned that I’ve taken the early mornings at the chapel for granted.”

She looked back up at him, smiling in a startled, open way that was unlike her previous serenity. “Thank you, Sylvain.”

“Don’t thank me.” Sylvain squeezed her side lightly in reply. “It was a group effort.”

“And a well-coordinated group you are.” Mercedes fiddled with his belt and Sylvain’s mind went embarrassingly blank-white for a split second before he realized that she had pocketed his pistol back into its holster. “I’m sorry for stealing this, by the way!”

“Sorry? You saved my hide with that one!” Sylvain flashed her a reassuring grin. “You’ve got some guts, Miss Mercedes.”

“Oh, you know.” She shrugged prettily with something akin to mischief in her eyes. “The Goddess sees to it that they’ve served me well all these years.”

“Is your life really that exciting?” Sylvain asked. “It seems that you’re more than your father’s wanted notice gave you credit for.”

“I do what I can.” Mercedes smiled quietly, but her eyes were shuttered. It was a fascinating contrast to her previous open affability that Sylvain felt a curious shiver tingle in his stomach. 

“You’ll fit right in with our crew then,” he told her as they slipped past the cannon holes on the side of the ship, through which they could spot a soot-faced Annette waving frantically at them. “We’re a gaggle of tastefully moral miscreants with a penchant for justice and fair maidens.”

“Sounds delightful,” Mercedes, Sylvain learned, had a laugh like golden champagne bubbles flickering in a glass flute of restraint. It was fascinating, he thought as Dimitri finally hauled them over the railing without so much as a grunt of effort. 

“There he is, Captain,” Felix said wryly over Dimitri’s shoulder. “The hellion who decided it was a good idea to threaten Edelgard the Black Eagle with a _flashbang_.”

“That’s the kettle calling the pot black on so many levels there, Felix.” Sylvain groaned as he planted his feet on solid ground again. “But the real hellion is Mercedes here! She nearly _shot_ Edelgard with my own goddess-damned gun!”

“Impressive,” Felix conceded slowly even as Ingrid’s eyes shone with awe. “No one challenges Captain Edelgard and gets away unscathed. You might be something after all.”

“Thank you!” Mercedes beamed without a hint of sarcasm. “Sylvain set up a good example first, however, so I have him to thank for my rather foolhardy actions.”

Sylvain clutched his chest. “You wound me! I threw that flashbang with your every good intention at heart.”

“I’m sure, Sylvain.” Mercedes then had the gall to _wink_ at him, like a flash of sunlight over an oceanic horizon. Sylvain’s chest suddenly seized with a sudden stutter-skip, like his heart had just hiccupped in the oddest way.

 _Wow, get it together, Gautier_. Sylvain scolded himself even as Mercedes tucked a strand of wayward hair over one perfectly formed ear. _You’re better than this, for Goddess’ sake._

Am I?

“In any case,” he finally said gallantly, sweeping an arm out to the deck of the ship, where Dimitri and the others had gathered with smiling, open expressions, “welcome to _The Azure Moon_ , Miss Mercedes von Martritz. We’re thrilled to have you onboard.” 

  


.

  


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fin?

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Come hang out with me at [my twitter!](https://twitter.com/clairvoyancehsu)


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